In fact, it's downright bashful, because when it was first put into use, it was only a marketing ploy to allow manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers to sell a smaller amount of product for the same price! The only reason we still buy things by the liter, so many years later, is because there's no way that greedy businesses are going to go back to giving us a full quart of product when we pay for one.

Even if you spell LitreBritishly, you still pronounce the E before the R, but you exaggerate the sharpness of the T, just in case anyone might have mistaken you for American. Besides, it makes people laugh, and that's a good thing, right?